It’s a
pleasure to bring out the inspirational journeys of the much accomplished
ladies from the hospitality industry. In fact it has been 8 months of IWH and
we have connected with, learnt about and from many illustrious personalities.
That has been our motivation; we have another such personality – Ms. Sanah
Singh Tomar. I have known her for over 24 years; we were batch mates as well as
hostel mates at IHM Mumbai. She was liked by all; be the professors,
batchmates, seniors or juniors and was a favourite of many. Well spoken, well
dressed and whatever ‘Well’ one can associate with a person; she was all that
and more. I found her to be extremely diplomatic and matured beyond her years
even then. She was a level headed teenager and now she is an excellence coach,
a role befitting her personality to the T. She has been a role model and a
mentor to many professionals.
Ms. Tomar is an experienced
learning and development professional with over 2 decades of experience in the
field of developing human resources in the corporate sector. Her expertise lies
in Coaching for performance, Personal effectiveness, Well being, Creating
impact in presenting and communication, Leadership- leading self and others and
working collaboratively as a team. A graduate degree holder in hotel
management from The Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development, followed by PGD
(HRM) from Symbiosis, Pune. Topped with a diploma in L&D from the Indian
society of training and development (ISTD) , ACC ICF (International Coaching
Federation) certification from the Neuroleadership group, India and Coach
Masters Academy, Singapore.
She is passionate about working
with individuals to help them realise their potential and consequently achieve
their goals. Being an experienced ICF certified Executive/well being coach has
helped her do that. Over 5000 people covering a gamut of industries have been
trained by her to date. She has conducted workshops for organisations as varied
as Aon, American Express, Cognizant, Coca Cola, EY, Fortis, Genpact, HSBC,
McKinsey, Pepsico, Wells Fargo, RBS, SRF & Sopra Steria to name a
few.
Ms. Tomar has varied interests
ranging from psychology to spirituality, from creative arts to well being and
she brings these interests to every interaction to create highly engaging
learning experiences for one and all. IWH experienced exactly that; we
had a power packed and delightful conversation with her.
IWH:
Tell us something about you, your growing up years, life through school,
college etc.
Ms.
Tomar: Born in the Middle East (Iran) to a set of well
educated, forward looking and doting parents was the perfect start to my
life. I was an extremely quiet and introverted child till I was sent to a
boarding school (CJM, Shimla) close to my double digit birthday. Being a
boarding school child taught me to be confident and self reliant.
IWH:
What made you select Hospitality as a career? Was it easy making that decision?
Ms.
Tomar: As a child I wanted to be a doctor just like my father,
but my awful grades in Maths kept that as a distant dream. As a young
adolescent girl the glamour of the airlines attracted me next and that’s what
made me chose an education in hospitality. The decision to be a part of
this industry was made easier for me my by elder brother who was already a
part of it, owing to his passion for the culinary world.
IWH:
What is your current role?
Ms.
Tomar: I moved out of hospitality a decade ago and since
then I have worked across industries having trained more than 5000 people
in areas of human behavior, skills and knowledge. I am currently
working as a consultant with a couple of organisations and running my own
executive/ well being coaching practice. Serving people has been a key thread
of my work life both in hospitality and as a coach. Writing articles and
challenging myself physically are my new found interests.
IWH:
How has your hospitality/ professional journey been so far? Pros, cons etc?
Ms.
Tomar: The hospitality industry is designed to test young
professionals on many fronts but the beauty is that if you are able to
successfully stay on top of it, it can set you up for life. I owe a lot to my
training and early work life experience in the hotel world to have given me the
multiple hard/ soft skills that have been my pillars of strength till date.
IWH:
Who has been your mentor or a role model? In what way has that person helped
you?
Ms.
Tomar: Not one but many people have played an important role in my
professional journey. Right from school, college to OCLD and professionals I
have worked with over the years.
IWH:
What have been the high points of your career? Highlight at least 3.
Ms.
Tomar: Life in IHM Mumbai was a roller coaster ride from
the HIGHS of discovering how large a hotel operation really
is/ wonderful friendships/ great faculty/ being a part of the
most glamorous, talked about events in Mumbai/ a very conducive
environment for performance to the LOWS of struggling in the BTK
(basic training kitchen) and not understanding hotel engineering and
maintenance at all. Becoming the college president in the final year gave me a
real time flavor of what leadership can be and should be. Graduating to be a
part of OCLD as a management trainee further strengthened qualities such as
discipline, grooming, service orientation, attention to detail, humility and
ability to work hard and long hours. From hotel operations, I
moved into hotel training and since then I have been a learning and development
professional.
IWH: What challenges have you
faced as a woman in the industry? How did you deal with them?
Ms.
Tomar: Work life balance is one of the biggest challenges women
face especially when it comes to child rearing but a supportive family/
community and great HR policies can help women ease through those crucial
years.
IWH:
What do you think of IWH?
Ms.
Tomar: A big thank you to IWH for bringing this community
together and allowing us to share our adventures.
IWH:
Your advice to the young professionals and students.
Ms.
Tomar: Irrespective of where one works – Discipline, Dedication
and Determination are key to performance. If you are passionate about what you
do, the three mentioned before come naturally. To be able to balance
professional and personal aspirations needs constant focus on both.
We thank Ms. Tomar for her time
and the ‘many takeaways’ from her personal and professional life. One of them
being creating balance in all things that we do.
Read full story at : http://www.theiwh.com/balance-is-the-key-ms-sanah-singh-tomar/Website: http://www.theiwh.com/
